"Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s..." Topic

… Most Persistent Myth

"More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, scores of websites, articles, and organizations repeat claims that anywhere between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans fought willingly as soldiers in the Confederate army. But as Kevin M. Levin argues in this carefully researched book, such claims would have shocked anyone who served in the army during the war itself. Levin explains that imprecise contemporary accounts, poorly understood primary-source material, and other misrepresentations helped fuel the rise of the black Confederate myth. Moreover, Levin shows that belief in the existence of black Confederate soldiers largely originated in the 1970s, a period that witnessed both a significant shift in how Americans remembered the Civil War and a rising backlash against African Americans' gains in civil rights and other realms.

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Amicalement
Armand

I am told that the author is a well respected professional academic historian and this book is very highly rated. It seems much of it was leaked on line over the summer.

Personally I am..as is so often the case….surprised by the sub-title. We all know why publishers do it. Most Persistent? Did anyone really think there truly were large numbers of black Confederate soldiers? A Myth I think we all accepted. Many a book has documented that the idea was discussed in the South, especially in the closing stages, but never truly adopted.

Shame this topic never appeared in ACW Media. Maybe we will get to see a review once published

Someone on here just re-pushed the idea that very small numbers of blacks fought for the South. It seems it has less to do with history and more to do with both rationalization and denial to help current supporters of the South's ACW point of view to believe slavery and white supremacy wasnt really a large part of the rebel cause.

MiniPigs- +2

They must have been threatened with death to do so.

Spent years fighting back against this myth. Always told folks who believed in it that all they had to do was examine the southern states' pension papers submitted after the war.

Glad someone spent the time to refute the myth by researching 150k members of the CSA forces.

Dan

March 13th 1865 the CSA Senate passed a bill to offer black slaves their freedom in exchange for military service…..but it never got past the individual states. The very idea is daft. All the slaves have to do is keep a steady nerve for a few months more and they are free anyway. Also there was no mention of their families being freed.

This is on Audible too.

We are lucky Tango got this posted before the "New Policy" on TMP could have deleted it without any explanation or notice;

TMP link

This has still not been circulated beyond "TMP Talk", even though it affects every message board

Bought the book, good read. Puts a stake thru the black confederate soldier myth. Recommend for all that have had to listen to the neo-confederates' attempts to create facts.

Dan

Blimey! Only released yesterday. Did you get a sneak preview?

Why not do a few lines of a review and post onto ACW Media as a new topic. That would satisfy the TMP "New Policy" and actually do something to justify it.